"Edward & Mrs. Simpson Edward & Mrs. Simpson is a seven-part British television series that dramatises the events leading to the 1936 abdication of King Edward VIII, who gave up his throne to marry the twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson. The series, made by Thames Television for ITV, was originally broadcast in 1978. Edward Fox played Edward, and Cynthia Harris portrayed Mrs. Simpson. The series was scripted by Simon Raven, based on Fox's maternal aunt Frances Donaldson's biography of the King, ""Edward VIII"". It was produced by Andrew Brown, overseen by Head of Drama Thames Television Verity Lambert and directed by"
"abdication crisis surrounding King Edward VIII to amend the Irish Free State's Constitution to abolish both the Crown and the office of governor-general. Having done so, he faced a threat of a court case from Ua Buachalla, who had been left personally liable for the remaining one year's expensive private lease on his residence, following the sudden abolition of his office. In practice, between 1933 and December 1936, the Irish government had paid Ua Buachalla expenses, from which he paid the rent on the expensive residence which was picked for him. However, from December 1936, the government insisted that it"
"Abdication, rather than 11 December when the Abdication Act had come into force in the UK. It also declared that actions taken in the name of Edward VIII after the abdication but before the passage of the South African act were deemed to be valid. The act was repealed by the South African Constitution of 1961 when South Africa became a republic. His Majesty King Edward the Eighth's Abdication Act, 1937 His Majesty King Edward the Eighth's Abdication Act, 1937 (Act No. 2 of 1937) was an act of the Parliament of South Africa that ratified the abdication of King"
"Abdication Act 1936, by which Edward VIII ceased to be Sovereign ""immediately upon"" his royal assent as King being signified in Parliament on 11 December. The Act provided that he and his descendants, if any, were not to have any ""right, title or interest in or to the succession to the Throne"". Edward died childless in 1972. Edward's abdication was ""a demise of the Crown"" (in the words of the Act), and the Duke of York, his brother who was then next in the line, immediately succeeded to the throne and to its ""rights, privileges, and dignities"", taking the regnal"
"ease the situation but the other end of the wicket [Edward VIII] was determined."" This seemingly indicated that the King had decided he had no option but to abdicate if he wished to marry Wallis. The King signed the Instrument of Abdication on 10 December 1936, in the presence of his three surviving brothers, the Duke of York (who would ascend the throne the following day as George VI), the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent. Special laws passed by the Parliaments of the Dominions finalised Edward's abdication the following day, or in Ireland's case one day later."
"age on 21 April 1944, her 18th birthday. Because of this, Prince Henry could not leave England at the same time as the King. Furthermore, he and his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, had to increase their royal engagements considerably to support the new King. Edward VIII, who became Duke of Windsor after abdicating, recalled that it was Henry who reacted least to the news of his abdication. The brothers had never been close, and apart from horses, they had not much in common. But Edward did admit regretting the implications the abdication would have on ""The Unknown Soldier"","
"outrage towards Canadian puritanism—both Catholic and Protestant—that would occur if Edward VIII married a divorcée. Further, the Cabinet telegrammed the King, urging him to place his duty as sovereign above his feelings for Simpson. As popular anger mounted in tandem with the imminence of a marriage between Edward and Simpson, Baldwin drafted proposed solutions to the crisis; as with most other Dominion prime ministers, Canada's, Mackenzie King, rejected the notions that either a royal or morganatic marriage take place, leaving only the King's abdication as the final option. As such, Edward VIII renounced his Canadian Crown on 10 December, giving,"
"VIII abdicated in order to marry his lover, Wallis Simpson, after facing opposition from the governments of the United Kingdom and the British dominions. Although Edward VIII had signed a declaration of abdication the previous day (10 December 1936), he was still King until he gave royal assent to this Act, which occurred on 11 December. The Act was passed through the Houses of Parliament in one day, with no amendments. Royal Succession Bills and Acts Royal Succession Bills and Acts are pieces of (proposed) legislation to determine the legal line of succession to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom."
"Dominions. (Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa gave parliamentary assent later.) The Act effected Edward's abdication in the United Kingdom on 11 December; as the Canadian government had requested and consented to the Act becoming part of Canadian law, and Australia and New Zealand had then not yet adopted the Statute of Westminster, the abdication took place in those countries on the same day. The parliament of South Africa, however, passed its own legislation—His Majesty King Edward the Eighth's Abdication Act, 1937—which backdated the abdication there to 10 December. The Irish Free State recognised the king's abdication with the Executive"
"Abdications of Bayonne The Abdications of Bayonne is the name given to a series of forced abdications of the Kings of Spain that led to what the Spanish-speaking world calls the ""Guerra de la Independencia Española"" (Spanish War of Independence) (1808-1814), which overlaps with the Peninsular War. The failed El Escorial Conspiracy preceded the Mutiny of Aranjuez, which forced King Charles IV to abdicate the throne to his son Ferdinand VII in 1808 by order of the Spanish Royal Council. Ferdinand VII also abdicated later that year. Napoleon's designation of his brother, Joseph, as King of Spain was resisted by"
"how the service should be broadcast by the media. The King's desire to marry an allegedly unsuitable woman was the public reason for a constitutional crisis that led to his abdication from the throne on 11 December 1936. While plans for the coronation went ahead, this time for a different monarch, thousands of businesses, both large and small, were stuck with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds worth of souvenirs and other memorabilia with Edward's face or monogram on them. While silver coinage was not supposed to be issued until just before the coronation was to take place,"
"Following opposition to the potential of Edward's marriage to Wallis Simpson from the British government and autonomous Dominions of the British Commonwealth, the fort became the final setting of Edward's abdication as king. He held several meetings with Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin at Fort Belvedere during the crisis, and on 10 December 1936 signed his written abdication notices at the fort, witnessed by his three younger brothers: Prince Albert, Duke of York (who succeeded Edward as George VI); Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince George, Duke of Kent. The following day, it was given legislative form by special Act"
"Edward VIII. Because his abdication occurred before production of any Canadian coinage with his likeness could commence, no Canadian coins bear his image. In 1937, There was a pressing demand for 1¢, 10¢, and 25¢ coins, but as the Royal Canadian Mint was waiting for new tools and matrices to arrive from the Royal Mint, the decision was made to strike coins dated 1936, but a dot would be added in the area near the date to indicate that the coins were struck in 1937. The 1¢ and 10¢ coins with the dot are excessively rare, so rare in fact"
"the Labour Party, and the prime ministers of the Commonwealth. King Edward VIII therefore was forced to abdicate the throne in 1936 when he insisted on marrying an American divorcée. Although public opinion gave him considerable support, elite opinion was hostile, and he was practically forced into exile. Archbishop Lang in a radio broadcast lashed out, blaming the upper-class social circles that Edward frequented: Edward's biographer Philip Ziegler argues that Edward was poorly prepared to be King, because of deep personal weaknesses; he was inconsistent, superficial and incapable of resisting distractions, and handled the constitutional issues poorly. Frank Mort argues"
"Edward VIII in the abdication crisis. By 1939, he had been out of Cabinet for ten years, and his career seemed all but over. Churchill discussed his political convictions in letters to his mother where he made a number of unflattering comments about the Conservative government and noted: His beliefs were significantly affected by those of his father, Lord Randolph, after whose early death he wrote: Randolph had been a fervent supporter of Ulster Unionists, and had played a major part in formulating the policy of 'Tory Democracy', though he had chosen a career in the army for Churchill. After"
"Economic troubles, rumours about a sexual relationship between the Queen and Godoy, and the King's ineptitude, caused the monarchy to decline in prestige among the population. Anxious to take over from his father, and jealous of the prime minister, Crown Prince Ferdinand attempted to overthrow the King in an aborted coup in 1807. Riots, and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez, in 1808 forced the king to abdicate on 19 March, in favor of his son. Ferdinand took the throne as Ferdinand VII, but was mistrusted by Napoleon, who had 100,000 soldiers stationed in Spain by that time."
"buried alongside her husband. In the view of historians, such as Philip Williamson writing in 2007, the popular perception in the 21st century that the abdication was driven by politics rather than religious morality is false and arises because divorce has become much more common and socially acceptable. To modern sensibilities, the religious restrictions that prevented Edward from continuing as king while planning to marry Simpson ""seem, wrongly, to provide insufficient explanation"" for his abdication. His full style as king was ""Edward VIII, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas,"
"depicted in the 2009 film ""The Young Victoria"" and in the 2016 television-drama series ""Victoria"". Bedchamber Crisis The Bedchamber Crisis occurred on 7 May 1839 after Whig politician Lord Melbourne declared his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after a government bill passed by a very narrow margin of only five votes in the House of Commons. The distraught young Queen Victoria, whose ardent political sympathies were with the Whigs, first asked the Duke of Wellington, a former Tory prime minister, to form a new government, but he politely declined. She then reluctantly invited Conservative leader"
"succession to the Crown"" under the 2013 act. The constitutional crisis arising from Edward VIII's decision to marry a divorcee in 1936 led to His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936, which provided that Edward VIII and his descendants would have no claim to the throne. The Act is no longer applicable, because Edward died in 1972 without issue. Under the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, the first six persons in line to the throne must obtain the sovereign's approval before marrying. Marriage without the Sovereign's consent disqualifies the person and the person's descendants from the marriage from succeeding"
"has raised some logistical concerns, as it would mean multiple parliaments would all have to assent to any future changes in any realm to its line of succession, as with the Perth Agreement's proposals to abolish male-preference primogeniture. During the abdication crisis in 1936, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin consulted the Commonwealth prime ministers at the request of King Edward VIII. The King wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, whom Baldwin and other British politicians considered unacceptable as queen, as she was an American divorcée. Baldwin was able to get the then five Dominion prime ministers to agree with this and"
"as unconstitutional and refused to allow Western Australia to leave the federation. The state's appeal to the British government to intervene was also unsuccessful. In July 1933, Lyons established the Commonwealth Grants Commission to provide impartial advice about the distribution of federal government grants to the states; in remains in existence. Lyons was prime minister during the Edward VIII abdication crisis of 1936. He and the other Dominion leaders were only officially informed of the king's intention to abdicate a few weeks before it occurred, although he had found out about the situation earlier through unofficial channels. Lyons strongly opposed"
"Bedchamber Crisis The Bedchamber Crisis occurred on 7 May 1839 after Whig politician Lord Melbourne declared his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after a government bill passed by a very narrow margin of only five votes in the House of Commons. The distraught young Queen Victoria, whose ardent political sympathies were with the Whigs, first asked the Duke of Wellington, a former Tory prime minister, to form a new government, but he politely declined. She then reluctantly invited Conservative leader Robert Peel to form a government. Peel realised that such a government would hold a"
"grant of the King, whereas the Act's new oath sought the King to rule according to the law agreed in parliament. His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 (1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6 c. 3), was the Act of the British Parliament that recognized and ratified the abdication of King Edward VIII from the throne of the United Kingdom and the dominions of the British Commonwealth, and passed succession to his brother Prince Albert, Duke of York (who became King George VI). The Act also excluded any possible future descendants of Edward from the line of succession. Edward"
"crisis revolving around the King's temporary insanity in 1788–1789, when Fox and his allies supported full powers as regent for their ally, the Prince of Wales. However, the opposition Whigs were split by the onset of the French Revolution. While Fox and some younger members of the party such as Charles Grey and Richard Brinsley Sheridan were sympathetic to the French revolutionaries, others led by Edmund Burke were strongly opposed. Although Burke himself was largely alone in defecting to Pitt in 1791, much of the rest of the party, including the influential House of Lords leader the Duke of Portland,"
"made provision for a change in the line of succession had a child been born to William IV after his death, but this event did not come about. In 1936 Edward VIII abdicated 11 months after he succeeded to the throne immediately on his father's death. Edward was proclaimed King in January 1936, and opened (for the only time) Parliament in November 1936. Edward VIII had desired to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcee, but the Church of England, of which the British Sovereign is Supreme Governor, would not authorize the marriage of divorcees. Consequently, Parliament passed His Majesty's Declaration of"
"a significant role in the 1936 abdication crisis. He wrote in his diary that Wallis Simpson, Edward VIII's intended wife, was ""an entirely unscrupulous woman who is not in love with the King but is exploiting him for her own purposes. She has already ruined him in money and jewels ..."". In common with the rest of the Cabinet, except Duff Cooper, he agreed with Baldwin that the King should abdicate if he married Simpson, and on 6 December he and Baldwin both stressed that the King should make his decision before Christmas; by one account, he believed that the"
"March 1921. Subsequently, the postwar depression and easing Soviet-British relations caused cutbacks to the Secret Service, and Conrad resigned from the service and returned to England. Upon his return, Conrad was assigned as an Aide-de-camp to one of the British Governors for the upcoming Royal tour of India. Edward VIII, then the Prince of Wales, arrived in India on 21 December 1921, and stayed until April 1922. During this time the Indian National Congress of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru was in full swing, and the Royal tour was dogged by passive demonstrations and riots. The heavy handed response"
"the Spanish people and led to the Peninsular War. Napoleon was eventually forced to release Ferdinand, and, on December 11, 1813, he appointed Ferdinand as the King of Spain. Abdications of Bayonne The Abdications of Bayonne is the name given to a series of forced abdications of the Kings of Spain that led to what the Spanish-speaking world calls the ""Guerra de la Independencia Española"" (Spanish War of Independence) (1808-1814), which overlaps with the Peninsular War. The failed El Escorial Conspiracy preceded the Mutiny of Aranjuez, which forced King Charles IV to abdicate the throne to his son Ferdinand VII"
"policy if he wished to. He convinced Hitler that he had Edward's support, but this was as much a delusion as his belief that he had impressed British society. In fact, Ribbentrop often displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of British politics and society. During the abdication crisis of December 1936, Ribbentrop reported to Berlin that it had been precipitated by an anti-German Jewish-Masonic-reactionary conspiracy to depose Edward (whom Ribbentrop represented as a staunch friend of Germany), and that civil war would soon break out in Britain between the supporters of the king and those of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. Ribbentrop's civil"
"Royal Question The Royal Question (, ) was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951, coming to a head between March and August 1950. The ""Question"" at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III could return to the country and resume his royal role as King of the Belgians amid allegations that his actions during World War II had gone contrary to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution. It was eventually resolved by the abdication of Leopold in favour of his son, Baudouin, in 1951. The crisis emerged from the division between Leopold and his government,"
"personal union. George V's death in 1936 was followed by the accession of Edward VIII, who caused a public scandal by announcing his desire to marry the divorced American Wallis Simpson, even though the Church of England opposed the remarriage of divorcées. Accordingly, Edward announced his intention to abdicate; the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and of other Commonwealth countries granted his request. Edward VIII and any children by his new wife were excluded from the line of succession, and the Crown went to his brother, George VI. George served as a rallying figure for the British people during World"
"not like: Wilhelm II. Edward's difficult relationship with his nephew exacerbated the tensions between Germany and Britain. In April 1908, during Edward's annual stay at Biarritz, he accepted the resignation of British Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. In a break with precedent, Edward asked Campbell-Bannerman's successor, H. H. Asquith, to travel to Biarritz to kiss hands. Asquith complied, but the press criticised the action of the King in appointing a prime minister on foreign soil instead of returning to Britain. In June 1908, Edward became the first reigning British monarch to visit the Russian Empire, despite refusing to visit in"
"Abdication crisis became public, coming to a head in the first two weeks of December 1936. At this time, Churchill publicly gave his support to the King. The first public meeting of the Arms and the Covenant Movement was on 3 December. Churchill was a major speaker and later wrote that in replying to the Vote of Thanks, he made a declaration 'on the spur of the moment' asking for delay before any decision was made by either the King or his Cabinet. Later that night Churchill saw the draft of the King's proposed wireless broadcast and spoke with Beaverbrook"